Sera (Rango FanFic)
by RogueDraken
Summary: Sera, a Diamondback Rattler. Born and raised in captivity and suddenly left abandoned by the human family she loved in a desert. From that minute onward, she encounters new friends and foes and tries to go out of her way to save the small and dying town of Riverbed. By her side is the outlaw gunslinger Rattlesnake Jake, the crazy and fun raven Squawks, and many others.
1. Chapter 1

For five long years, she sat in the same corner, in the same cage, in the same room, of the same house. For the past week now, from where books, movies, and magazines once were, boxes took their place. The objects in them secured and snug tight to keep from damage. She would sit and watch them pack everything in the boxes and haul them outside. She knew a big change is to happen, but what exactly, she was not sure of. It wasn't until the last of the items of the house have been brought to one of the awaiting vehicles, did two people stride over to Sera's cage and took opposite ends to lift it up.

Sera looked questioningly to one another and then back at the corner she has spent all her life in until the cage was turned at a corner to lead outside. The outside... a place Sera was not familiar with.

She gasped as for the first time she was touched by the sun's warm rays and at first curled in a ball in one of the corners of her only sanctuary and hid her head beneath her belly. Sera didn't look again until the heat left and was replaced by the coldness of the shade. Peeking one eye over her long body, she saw that her surroundings were far different from inside the building.

When the humans she has lived and known all her life entered inside the strange environment without so much as hesitation and filled the area with laughter, Sera uncurled herself and moved towards the three kids until she reached the glass. She smirked at their happiness; if they felt no threat or danger, then she, too, felt no threat or danger.

The vehicle started, and at first made Sera jump, but she soon learned to cope with the strange sounds, sights, smells, and feel. She even began to enjoy the strange light from the orb in the sky. She fixed her nest of shredded newspaper in the direct morning sunlight and slithered in a circle until she was in her usual comfortable position, extended her jaws in a large yawn, and closed her brilliant blue eyes to drift off in a deep sleep.

Not knowing how long she was out, Sera awoke to the youngest child taping their finger on the glass window of her cage. She lazily looked at the child and the corners of her mouth slightly curved upward and she unwrapped her tail to tap the tip of her rattler on the glass, mimicking the four year old. Then the child placed his hand on the glass and Sera poked at the middle of the child's hand before she allowed her tail to fall and she slowly began to doze off.

The vehicle started slowing and Sera paid no heed to it. She heard two doors open and close almost at once. A shadow suddenly blocked her sunlight and feeling the coldness, she jolted her head up just as the back of the jeep opened and four hands reached and dragged out the cage.

Looking around the area, nothing could be seen. No houses no other humans, no civilization. Only miles upon miles of sand and rock. The golden landscape seemed dead with very few vegetation but no other signs of wildlife, and yet, further and further the two kept walking with her out into the desert.

She began circling her cage in an inch away from panic.

They won't leave her here... will they?

They can't- they won't!

Her life depends on them and they know it!

Sera's heart sunk as they stooped down to place the cage upon the ground and slowly, they began to tip it and Sera allowed herself to give into gravity. The humans slightly opened the cage door and soon began jogging back towards the jeep.

"No..." Sera pushed against the door, but when it barley moved, she lunged at it with all her might and it gave way and crashed in the dirt. Sera quickly slithered from her cage and looked towards her humans just as they began to close their doors.

"No, no, no!" Sera bolted off towards the vehicle that now began to slowly increase in its speed as it waited for other vehicles to pass before it finally sped forward.

"Wait!" Sera called and she put all the speed she had into her muscles. She lifted her head inches above the ground to look past the dust and the rocks she slithered over and around.

"Don't leave me!"

Never had she slithered so fast in her life, and yet it was so overwhelming. Already her heart was beginning to race and her breath quickened. She finally slowed, and with her head hung, she looked on at the retreating jeep, now only a black speck in the distance.

"Don't go..." was all her lungs could allow her to say.

Giving a deep sigh, she turned and began retracing her marks back to her only home she had left. Every time she heard an unfamiliar sound, she would freeze and wait for any kind of danger to appear. When nothing would happen in the few minutes she would spend at a time waiting, she would continue her way. Of course, it was sundown by the time she found her cage.

Sera gathered the scattered newspaper in a bed in a corner and curled in a tight ball. The strange sounds of the night troubled her and she found it hard to get to sleep without the comfort of being inside a house, surrounded by safe and secure walls. She dug her head into one of her coils and tightly closed her eyes. Despite the howls of the coyotes in the distance, sleep was able to help her escape the nightmare she was living.


	2. Chapter 2

The light of the sun stirred Sera in her sleep and slowly brought her out of her dreams. Slowly crawling from her nest and out into open space, she looked at the area surrounding her, hoping that it was nothing but imaginary. The heat and the feeling of the sand beneath her reminded her that she was no longer apart of a pet life.

She sighed and looked back at her cage with a lost and hopeless expression, before she pushed herself away from it. There was no use in staying in a place that gave little protection, and stung her heart every time she looked from the glass that formed the cage, to the shredded newspapers that gradually began to scatter in the wind. There was no other choice, but to move forward.

When she first entered the world outside the human home, she enjoyed the new experiences of the fresh air, the feeling of new element she slithered on, and the warmth of the sun that was more enjoyable than the light that used to hang above her cage. But now, she wished that she could go back to the people who cared for her. The ones she considered family.

Why they left her was the only thing that she focused her thoughts on during the long and exhausting travel under the glare of the sun and through the winds that threw dust in her eyes.

Her mouth became parched and Sera was soon slithering with her head low to the ground  
and moved in slow, limited slides through the sand.

The heat waves  
that danced in her vision tricked her two times before she learned  
their illusion and kept moving in one direction. Once more, when she  
thought the illusions were playing tricks with her mind, the shape of  
a black figure moved around and yells echoed in her ears. Exactly  
what the words were, she couldn't tell. They were too distant to make  
out.

As she neared  
this illusion, she blinked at the flailing creature and squeezed her  
eyes to focus more as she stopped no more than a four feet reach.

A black bird  
squawking and throwing words in a language that Sera was unfamiliar  
with. It tripped over it's feet and several feathers were sent  
through the air. Unknowing of what to do, Sera just looked at the  
bird with a stumped look plastered to her face. She then noticed that  
the bird's head was shoved in a _Pringles_  
can. Sera recognized the logo on the container. Back at her human  
home, it was the kid's daily snack after they came home after  
spending most of the day at this place called a 'school'.

"Uh, excuse me, sir?"

The black bird tripped over her tail but kept moving it's feet and failed at raising it's body, dragging the can along the ground but stopped and tried to turn to her after it got back some of it's balance.

"Yes?"

His voice had strong accent that Sera has only hear on TV. Another hobby of the kid's after their school.

"Do you need some help?"

The can suddenly stood upright and nearly smacked under Sera's jaw if she had not moved at the last second.

"Help? Help? No, no, no. I don't need help! I has this under the control of my wing!" as he pronounced 's', it sounded more like a 'z', and it almost sounded like he put a 'v' before the 'w'. At the end of his sentence, he stood straight and stretched his wings out in a 'ta dah' pose before the can began tilting him to the side and his body fell with it.

"Well, I don't mean to be rude, but you seem like you have a problem," Sera pointed out.

"Problem? No problem here! No, no, no. I enjoy getting my head stuck in cans, it's perfectly normal for me! It's pretty much a hobby!" As the bird tries to stand, he only succeeded in making himself roll in a large circle. At his fourth turn, he pushed the can until he was lying on his back and for a moment, Sera thought that there was something wrong and was relieved when she heard his muffled voice coming from within the can.

"Still here?"

"Yeah,"

"Well, let's say that if I did have a problem- which I don't- would you be so kind as to, pull a certain can off my head?"

"Hmm... I'll have to think about it," Sera said in a thoughtful tone.

"No, no, no, no, no!" the bird rolled to his stomach and stood bottom-up in the air. "You offer before! Why think now?"

"Reconsideration," Sera said, without missing a beat. She smirked at the bird as he tried to make her the fool of this situation when he clearly has her beat.

The bird forced himself to scoot over in Sera's direction until the can bumped her belly.

"You wouldn't leave a defenseless bird, like myself, in a cruel and unforgiving wilderness, looking like this, would you?" he had the somewhat expecting tone in his voice that her answer wouldn't be the one that he was looking for, but Sera knew better.

"Alright, I'll help." She extended her jaws over the container and she could feel her sharp teeth poking through the can.

The bird jerked back in an attempt to be free. He pressed his wings against her and she pulled the opposite direction.

"Okay, ready? One, two, three!" the bird gave the command and at once they each began pulling back. Slowly but gradually, the can began slipping from his feathers and when they though that they were going to free him, the can snugged around his chest and his wings. At once, they both gave their effort more power and he suddenly popped out of the can.

The bird went sprawling in one direction and Sera went the other and both rolled in the yellow dirt, stirring a large cloud.

Standing and brushing himself off, the bird began walking towards Sera as the dust began to settle.

"I greatly appreciate you spending you're time to-" the last bit of dust began to calm, clearing their view of one another and he got a vision-full of a large rattler before him, picking herself off the ground and readjusting herself.

His knees began to buckle and his body began to shake and his dark brown eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets and he staggered backwards only to sit on the dirt and gawk at the serpent before him.

Sera gave him a worried and questioning look.

"What? What's wrong? Did I dislocate something?" Sera began slithering towards him but he only hustled to scoot away.

"Stay back, you- you- beast!"

Sera was taken aback.

"What?" She raised the ridge of her eye.

"Serpent! Poison Fang! Rattler!" The bird crashed onto the ground and curled himself in a fatal position, acting as if he was expecting his death right there and now.

"I'm a rattlesnake, yes. You're a crow."

The shaking of his body stops abruptly and the lids of his eyes snap open. He quickly stands on his feet and marches towards Sera, feathers puffed. Sera began sliding backwards until her back met against a rock.

"Let me tell something to you! I am not a crow! I am a much more civilized and dominate cousin of the crow! I am the smartest of all birds! I am a raven!"

Sera at first was left unable to say anything, but after her mind adjusted to his words, she began to relax herself.

"Common mistake, it happens. I apologize," Sera answered back, shrugging her coils as if to brush off the topic.

The raven's ruffled feathers began to smooth out over his body again and the look of concern appeared in his eyes again. He adjusted his wings and flicked his tail and flicked his eyes back and forth to Sera and to a random pebble in the dirt, clearly still nervous around the presence of a killer. If he knew Sera, he wouldn't be trembling in fear, but possibly trembling from laughing. Sera, after watching his reactions towards her, suddenly became aware that she should be the one to be nervous and worried.

"So, uh, you not like other rattlers, huh?" The raven asked.

"Um, well, I suppose not..." Sera answered a bit uncomfortably.

"You 'suppose not'?" he jumped a few feet and clanked his beak against her head and Sera recoiled.

"Ow! What was that for?" She spat.

"You are not of the desert," he leaned to her and he looked her right in the eye, barley even an inch apart, "are you?" he asked, "let alone part of the wild."

Sera returned his stare and through his eyes, saw her reflection. Blinking, she moved her head away from him and slithered to his side.

"How... do you know?" The words came slow.

"I can tells by your eyes. They are too tame! And it is not every day a snake offers to help someone who can be an easy meal. Squawks says so!" He raised his head high and proud.

"Squawks?"

"Is my name! Squawks!" he tilted his head and froze. Eyes unmoving and unblinking.

"You're name?" he finally asked.

"Sera..."

"Is a pleasure to meet you, Rattlesnake Sera! If it is town you are looking for, there is one just over that hill." Squawks points towards Sera's destination. The direction was to the right of the previous direction she was traveling. The hill was a good distance away, at least an hour's worth of travel for her. Not including the time that will be spent into climbing it.

"I pass it while flying. Before, you know..." Sera narrowed her eyes at the chip container and looked back at the raven just as he turned and began walking the other direction. He was a couple of feet from her and just as she began to turn towards the town, the raven stopped in his tracks.

"Oh, and one more thing," Sera twisted her head around to him to give him all her attention, "As you slither along those sands that distance you from your target, be sure to keep a close eye on the," he whips around and gives a supposedly scary stance with wings stretched like claws, "Sky Death!"

"..." Sera, not knowing what her actions are supposed to be, just blankly looked at Squawks.

"The what?"

"...Silent Kill."

"..."

"Shadow Claw?"

"..."

"Blood Beak? You has to know that one!"

"It's like you said, I'm not from around here."

Squawks slumped his wings. He looked to both sides of him before striding over to Sera's side so quick, he was nothing but a black blur, and he whispered to her with a cupped wing.

"Be on the look out for the hawk."

"Hawk?" Sera felt a jolt of fear at the bottom of her stomach.

Squawks nodded and scanned the sky as if searching for any signs of the hawk.

"He owns that town. He is sure to be near." He taps the sides of his eye and scoots back from Sera.

"Squawks says so!" with those words, he sprung into the air and soon disappeared into the blue sky.


	3. Chapter 3

With a final heave, Sera cleared the top of the hill and with a great sigh, she slithered into the closest shade and gave her racing heart some time to slow. She curled into a ball and rested her head onto the top of her coils, the feeling of being overwhelmed of today's travel lay heavy on her eyelids.

She struggled to keep herself awake but the more she forced herself to keep her eyes open, the harder she found it to stay conscious. Sera slowly began to submit to the drowsiness that soon felt very welcomed to her.

As she accepted herself to rest, a sudden sound of something brushing against the sands quickly caught her attention and she snapped awake. She raised her head high above the ground but kept herself hidden against the rock that supported the shadow.

Sharp and short puffs of air brought her to peek over the rock. Her heart nearly sprung from her chest as a full view of a coyote sniffing around no more than a few feet of her. Just as the coyote turned it's head towards her, she quickly snapped herself away from the corner and flattened herself against the rock.

Silence fell upon her ears.

Sera slowly peeked around the corner once more to see a blank space of where the coyote has just been. Feeling nervous and tense, Sera jerked her head to the side and behind her to only see the same results. Swallowing nervously, she slowly moved along the base of the rock, keeping her eyes wide and open about her surroundings, and moved towards the direction she was pointed towards.

From above, something warm fell upon her head and dripped to the ground. Looking more closely and quickly realizing, she shot her eyes upward where large long and sharp teeth blurred in her vision.

A second before the jaws could trap Sera, she dodged away and the coyote jumped from the top of the rock and began pursuing the retreating snake.

Sera's heart raced out of fear as she fled for her life.

She quickly sought cover and the best and only choice at the moment was a thorn bush. Slithering past the large thorns that grabbed at her but failed at getting past her tough scales, Sera managed to go through unharmed. The coyote, on the other hand, did not see the bush in time before he ran into it with a pained yelp.

Sera continued slithering forward.

The coyote scrambled away from the thorns and violently shook himself to free himself of them from his fur. With a raged growl, he launched forward to Sera.

After realizing that his target has vanished, he stopped and began panting. He looked around for a moment to see if he was only headed in the wrong direction, but the snake was gone. Angry at himself, he pressed his nose to the ground and began scanning the earth for the signs that the snake has left for him to trace. If it was hiding somewhere close, then it will only be a matter of time before he can have his next meal.

With every breath he took to sniff Sera out, ribs bulged from his sides and his search for food became determination.

Ten or so feet away from the hungry coyote, a tall green cactus stood straight and proud upon the tilting of the hill. Leaning against the base of the cactus, was an old and worn and flat black tire. Inside the rims of it, circling the inside of the tire in an awkward position, was the frightened Sera.

Never so terrified in her life, she was shaking like a leaf .

Hearing the coyote nearing her hiding spot, she closed her eyes and prepared herself for the teeth that was soon to sink into her skin.

The tire suddenly jolted.

Sera jerked her eyes open as the tire began to rub against the cactus, making scratching noises against the rough plant as gravity began to pull at the object due to the added weight that Sera added.

The coyote's ears pricked at the sound of the rubber against the cactus. He shot his head towards the sound just as the tire vanished from the hill.

Rolling, and rolling, and rolling. Sera's world soon became nothing but a dizzy blur as she managed to stay inside the rim of the tire until it finally began to slow. Feeling too sick to even make herself move, she allowed herself to just continue to rise and fall with the tire until it finally lost it's balance and dropped to its side.

Groaning from the worst feeling she has ever experienced in her life, Sera remained unmoving for several minutes before she forced herself to crawl from the tire.

She laid on the ground for another moment to give her stomach a chance to settle itself right again before she lifted her head. She blinked the blur from her eyes and what she thought was more rocks and boulders, turned out to be little houses and stores.

She towered over them and at first, couldn't believe that she found the town Squawks has been talking about. She expected something, but this... everything was made from wood planks, or large cans.

Hearing a somewhat familiar clinking sound from behind her, Sera's immediate reaction was to turn.

She gazed down at a desert iguana. Their eyes met for a moment and Sera saw full fear. He was bent over and fighting with an object but when he realized that Sera was well aware of his presence, he closed the barrel of his pistol and quickly aimed the weapon at her.


End file.
